Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula is a large emission nebula in Monoceros surrounding the young open cluster NGC 2244. Ultraviolet radiation from the cluster’s stars ionizes the surrounding gas and helps shape its central cavity.

NGC 2244: A young open star cluster at the center of the Rosette Nebula. Its hot stars illuminate the nebula and drive the formation of its central cavity.
Monoceros: A constellation on the celestial equator, located between Orion and Hydra. The Rosette Nebula lies within this constellation.
NGC 2237: A New General Catalogue designation commonly applied to the Rosette Nebula. It is the best-known catalogue name associated with the nebula as a whole.
Orion Nebula: A nearby star-forming region and the closest large stellar nursery to Earth. It is a better-known, compact comparison to the Rosette’s broad ring-shaped nebula.
H II region: A region of ionized hydrogen surrounding hot young stars. The Rosette is a prominent example of this kind of emission nebula.
Open cluster: A group of stars formed together and loosely bound by gravity. NGC 2244 is an open cluster embedded in the Rosette’s central region.
NGC 2238: A New General Catalogue designation for a portion of the Rosette Nebula. It identifies one of the nebula’s catalogued regions.
Eagle Nebula: A star-forming nebula in Serpens containing the Pillars of Creation. Its prominent pillars contrast with the Rosette’s cavity-surrounding ring of gas.
Photoionization: The process by which photons remove electrons from atoms or molecules. Ultraviolet photons from NGC 2244 ionize hydrogen across the nebula.
Molecular cloud: A cold, dense interstellar cloud composed mainly of molecular hydrogen. The Rosette’s star-forming material belongs to a larger molecular-cloud complex.

Linked from 3 pages